Signs That You Are Suffering From Anxiety Disorder

 

 

Anxiety can strike anyone, at any time,and for no apparent reason. Anxiety disorders affect about 18% of adults according to a research. That means more than 40 million people have problems panic attacks, social phobias, and obsessive-compulsive disorder symptoms severe enough to be classified as a disorder. Millions more feel anxious, but fall short of an actual diagnosis. How can you tell if your everyday anxiety has crossed the line into a disorder? It's not easy. Anxiety comes in many different forms such as panic attacks, phobia, and social anxiety and the distinction between an official diagnosis and "normal" anxiety isn't always clear.

 

Feeling anxious in response to danger or in new situations is a perfectly normal response. It’s called the fight-or-flight response and helps us survive in dangerous situations. But these typical feelings are different from Generalised Anxiety Disorder.  A person with Generalised Anxiety Disorder constantly feels tense and on edge, even when there is no danger present. Generalised Anxiety Disorder is a chronic disorder characterized by excessive, long-lasting anxiety and worry about nonspecific life events, objects, and situations.

 

Generalized Anxiety Disorder sufferers often feel afraid and worry about health, money, family, work, or school, but they have trouble both identifying the specific fear and controlling the worries. Their fear is usually unrealistic or out of proportion with what may be expected in their situation. Sufferers expect failure and disaster to the point that it interferes with daily functions like work, school, social activities, and relationships.

 

Trouble falling asleep or staying asleep is associated with a wide range of health conditions, both physical and psychological. And, of course, it's not unusual to toss and turn with anticipation on the night before a big speech or job interview. But if you chronically find yourself lying awake, worried or agitated about specific problems, like money or career, or nothing in particular, it might be a sign of an anxiety disorder. By some estimates, more than half of all people with Generalised Anxiety Disorder experience sleep problems.

 

Anxiety becomes a problem when, it is more intense or lasts longer than typically expected or it causes impairment or disability at school, at work, or in social environments or when even the daily activities are avoided in an attempt to lessen the anxiety. Women were more likely to be affected by anxiety disorders than men by a ratio of 1.9 to 1, and these difference persisted across time and in both developing and developed countries.

 

People with bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and multiple sclerosis are at greater risk of an anxiety disorder. In Europe, a range of 13 to 28 percent of people with bipolar disorder have anxiety too, while globally, 12 percent of people with schizophrenia have also been diagnosed with obsessive compulsive disorder. Finally, almost 32 percent of people with multiple sclerosis, which is a neurological condition, have an anxiety disorder, and over half of them have some anxiety symptoms.

 

Most treatments available are either medications or so-called talking therapy or counselling. Drug therapies, sometimes will not cure anxiety disorders, but which can keep symptoms under control. Of the non-drug treatments, cognitive behavioural therapy is one of the most effective with research suggesting that more than half of people with general anxiety can benefit from up to 20, one-hour sessions recommended. It works by helping sufferers to identify that their worrying is irrational and teaches them to react more positively.

 

..Divya